1. Field
Various features disclosed herein pertain to wireless communication systems, and at least some features pertain to devices and methods for facilitating both power conservation in a wireless client terminal and latency reduction in a wireless communication system by using a proxy device to receive and forward messages to the client terminal via a secondary wireless interface.
2. Background
Client terminals, such as laptop computers, personal digital assistant devices, mobile or cellular phones, or any other device with a processor, that communicate with other devices through wireless signals are becoming increasingly popular. Client terminals typically utilize various channels for different modes of operation. With consumers using power-intensive applications that run on the client terminals and often require nearly continuous network access, conserving network resources such as bandwidth becomes increasingly important. At the same time, client terminals often have a limited power source (e.g., rechargeable battery pack) and, consequently, may operate in various modes that may assist in extending the operating life of a client terminal between recharging.
Client terminals may operate in one of several modes, including an “active” mode and an “idle” mode. In active mode, client terminals may actively exchange data (e.g., voice or data calls or sessions) with one or more access nodes (e.g., base stations, Node B, femto cell, etc.) in a wireless communication system. In idle mode, the client terminal may monitor control channels, such as the paging channel (PCH) for paging messages. Such paging messages may include messages that alert the client terminal to the occurrence of an incoming voice or data call and control/overhead messages that carry system information and other information for the client terminal.
Power consumption in idle mode is substantially less than in the active mode. However, the client terminal continues to consume power to sustain circuitry needed to monitor the paging channel(s). Conventionally, in order to reduce power consumption in the idle mode, paging messages may be sent on the paging channel to the client terminal at designated times. Instead of monitoring the paging channel continuously, the client terminal may conserve power by periodically monitoring the paging channel by operating in a discontinuous reception mode (e.g., DRX). In the discontinuous reception mode, the client terminal wakes up from a “sleep” state, enters an “awake” state and processes the paging channel for messages, and reverts back to the sleep state if additional communication is not required.
Because the client terminal may spend a significant amount of time with the communication circuitry powered down (e.g., partially or fully powered off) in the sleep state, substantial power savings may be attained. However, the responsiveness of the communication system can suffer because the sleep state imposes additional delay in establishing (or reestablishing) communications to the client terminal. The degradation of the system responsiveness increases as the duration of the sleep cycles increases. That is, in systems with long sleep cycles, power conservation is substantially enhanced, but the system responsiveness may not be acceptable for all applications. In systems with short sleep cycles, client terminals experience faster power depletion or consumption, but the system responsiveness is enhanced. Accordingly, system engineers are faced with a trade-off between poor power conservation and poor responsiveness.
Therefore, there is a need for a solution that reduces power consumption of a client terminal while also increasing responsiveness.